And thou O sad and fatal mound!
That oft hast heard the death-axe sound,
As on the noblest of the land,
Fell the stern headsman's bloody hand.


The hill has, however, less terrible association; it being after called
Hurly Hacket, from James V. and his nobles there playing at that game,
which consisted in sliding down the steep banks on an inverted cutty
stool. This was, at least, more rational than cutting off heads. Next is
Abbey Craig, a rock upon which Wallace defeated the English; Dollava, a
village on a gloomy rock, almost insulated by two streams, whose Celtic
names signify the glens of care and the burns of sorrow; Tillabody, the
birthplace and property of Sir Ralph Abercrombie; the crumbling walls
and bell tower of Cambuskenneth Abbey, wherein several parliaments were
held, and at whose high altar the clergy and nobles swore fealty to
Robert and David Bruce; Edinburgh, with its castle, thirty-eight miles
from Stirling, whence it is discernable in clear weather; the Carron
Iron-works; and the Carron, of more classic celebrity in Ossian, and the
battles of the Romans and the Scots and Picts; the dome-shaped hill of
Tinto, in Lanarkshire, 60 miles from Stirling, and 2,336 feet in height;
Arthur's Hill, a circular mound of earth, surrounded by seats of turf
in the royal gardens, sometimes called the king's knot, where the court
held fêtes, and where James used to amuse himself with the pastime
called the Knights of the Round Table; Ben Lomond, 3,240 feet above the
lake, which is 32 feet above the level of the sea; Ben Venue, and Ben
Ledy, or the hill of God, in Perthshire, 3,009 feet in height, so called
from the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, in former times,
meeting on its summit at the summer solstice, three days and nights for
the purpose of devotion. These three mountains, with their vicinities